Ownship Symbol for Ground Hazard Visibility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Aircraft-based displays face challenges in providing accurate situational awareness during ground or surface operations, as fixed-size ownship symbols can obscure nearby hazards and traffic, leading to misleading separation information.
Innovation Solution
The display system simultaneously shows a fixed-size ownship symbol and a symbol conformal to the map scale, with the latter being rendered in solid form when the former would obscure features, ensuring clear visibility of aircraft proximity to nearby objects.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a fixed-size ownship symbol is used on the display, then the ownship symbol is easily locatable and provides consistent visual reference, but the symbol obscures nearby hazards and traffic during ground operations
Solution Approach 1:
The ownship symbol is divided into two distinct components: a fixed-size outer symbol (first symbol) that maintains consistent locatability, and a conformal inner symbol (second symbol) that scales with the map display to reveal nearby hazards. This segmentation allows each component to fulfill its specific function without interfering with the other.
Solution Approach 2:
The conformal ownship symbol (second symbol) is nested within the fixed-size ownship symbol (first symbol). The nested structure allows the smaller conformal symbol to be visible through or around portions of the larger fixed symbol, enabling hazard visibility while maintaining overall symbol locatability.
2Stability of the object's composition
If a fixed-size ownship symbol is used, then the symbol maintains constant visibility across different display scales, but it provides misleading separation information during surface operations
Solution Approach 1:
Different parts of the ownship symbol representation have different scaling properties: the outer symbol maintains fixed size for stability, while the inner symbol scales conformally to provide accurate local separation information. This local quality differentiation resolves the contradiction between global consistency and local accuracy.
3Illumination intensity
If the ownship symbol size is increased to ensure visibility, then the symbol is easily locatable, but it obscures important surface traffic and obstacles near the aircraft
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the size of the conformal ownship symbol (second symbol) based on the display scale and operational context. During ground operations at larger scales, the conformal symbol becomes sufficiently large to be visible while remaining small enough not to obscure hazards, providing adaptive visibility without constant obscuration.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of symbolically representing a location of an aircraft on a display in the aircraft is disclosed. It is determined whether the aircraft is operating proximal one of a runway and a taxi-way. A range of the display is selected. Features are displayed near a location of the aircraft on the display at a first scale that corresponds to the selected range. A first symbol representing a current location of the aircraft is displayed on the display at the first scale in solid form. A second symbol representing the current location of the aircraft is displayed on the display at a second scale in non-solid form when a size of the first symbol representing the aircraft at the first scale obscures the displayed features on the display. The size of the first symbol is smaller than a size of the second symbol.